88 percent of visitors informed they are less likely to revisit a website if they had a bad user experience.(source)

Every $1 invested in user experience can result in a return up to $100.(source)

The stats show that UX has the potential to rule website visitors and ROI-thirsty businesses with an iron fist, yet few companies pay attention to it. Those that do deliver more engaging, rewarding, and meaningful customer journeys.

Although nothing is set in stone on how to create a great user experience, a look at the latest UX design trends can help you determine what elements are being embraced by users (and what elements drive them mad).

Acknowledged? Then let’s take a look at the 5 UX design trends you should be aware of in 2016:

1. Exploration Design Becomes Common

Curiosity is the primal response of visitors when they encounter new experiences. According to scientific research, when a person embarks on a novel experience, their brains produce high quantities of dopamine (a neurotransmitter that controls the brain’s pleasure and reward center) as compared to familiar situations. This results in attachment to new experiences, which urges them towards continual discovery.

A design that enables users to experience new information or engagement is therefore critical to ignite positive associations with a website. Social media sites do this really well; a user never follows the same steps. One day you’ll be checking out someone’s profile, the next day you’d be exploring the newsfeed to see what’s trending and who wrote that viral post.

2. Web Designers Pay More Attention To Microinteractions

There’s a reason why Dan Saffer’s book “Microinteractions – Designing with Details” is attracting eyeballs these days. Saffer described microinteractions as little bits we don’t think about often. They are not similar to features, which have a larger scope and include multiple user stories. Microinteractions are brief, simple and almost effortless.

Saffer also revealed that effective microinteractions follow a four-step process:

Trigger: The visual signifier that initiates the action.

Rules: Determine what happens in what order when a user takes action.

Feedback: Verification for the user about what’s happening as a result of their action.

Loop & Modes: How long does the microinteraction last (does it repeat itself or ends immediately?).

3. Testing of AI-based UX Design

UX designers will start testing a variety of aspects from computer engineering in web design, changing sites in ways that create an intelligent or open-minded dimension for user interactions.

Think of the iOS keyboard for instance; the AI inside it draws attention to itself. When users type on the keyboard, they interact with AI that changes its guess about what word the user will type next dynamically.

AI-based UX design trends purport that the key to winning the visitor’s attention is to develop a model of the user’s goal and then let artificial intelligence interpret user actions in the light of those goals. Expect more designers to test AI on websites and web applications this year.

As for the debate whether users can trust machine-driven advice, Corina Yen and Clifford Nass wrote in the book “The Man Who Lied to His Laptop: What Machines Teach Us About Human Relationships” that people treat machines like normal people. As we use devices with people-like characteristics, we hold them to people-like expectations without realizing it.

AI and UX design could be a match made in heaven because AI can be integrated into the design without drawing attention to itself. That means the user may not know there’s a clever algorithm running in the background of a website they’re looking at. That is what happens in the Facebook News Feed, but not everyone notices it.

4. Automatic Carousel Will Become The UX Detractor

UX design trends for 2016 also include the death of some old practices. A major one is the use of carousel or automatic image sliders to attract users. Research pointed out that a rapid change in something (including carousel) triggers the reptilian part of the brain and distract site visitors.

Also, because carousels are often placed at the top of a webpage, they can be mistaken as banners. This can be an issue as users avoid things that look like an ad (even if it is not actually an ad). Moreover, there is a slim chance that users will absorb the important details from the carousel, as each detail changes after some seconds.

Search Engine Land published the data of three B2B sites for which event tracking was set on carousels. Site 1 used carousel for branding reasons. Site 2 used carousel to promote whitepapers and webinars. Site 3 used carousel to promote their services.